Vitus Bering

Lore & Background

Vitus Bering was born in the port town of Horsens in Denmark to Anne Pedderdatter and Jonas Svendsen, a customs inspector and churchwarden, and was baptized in the Lutheran church there on 5 August 1681. He was named after a maternal great-uncle, Vitus Pedersen Bering, a chronicler in the royal court. Bering signed on as a ship's boy at age 15. Between 1696 and 1704, he traveled the seas, reaching India and the Dutch East Indies while also completing naval officer training in Amsterdam. He later claimed, with some supporting evidence, to have served on Danish whalers in the North Atlantic, visiting European colonies in the Caribbean and on North America's eastern seaboard. In 1704, he enrolled with the rapidly expanding navy of Tsar Peter I. Under Norwegian-born Russian admiral Cornelius Cruys's guidance, Bering gained an officer's commission as sub-lieutenant. He was repeatedly promoted, reaching the rank of second captain by 1720. It appears he was not involved in any sea battles, but commanded several vessels on potentially dangerous missions, including transporting a ship from the Azov Sea to the Baltic. On 8 October 1713, Bering married Anna Christina Pülse in the Lutheran church at Vyborg. Over the next 18 years, they had nine children, four of whom survived childhood. After the Great Northern War ended in 1721, Bering was not promoted like many contemporaries. To save face, he retired and was promoted to first captain. He was permitted to keep that rank when he rejoined the Russian Navy later that year. On 29 December 1724 [N.S. 9 January 1725], Peter I ordered Bering to captain the First Kamchatka Expedition, with the charge to map new areas and establish whether Asia and America shared a land border. His lieutenants were Martin Spanberg and Aleksei Chirikov. The party traveled overland from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk, then by sea to the Kamchatka Peninsula. Bering was supplied with what few maps Peter had managed to commission. The expedition sailed north, repeating a little-documented journey of Semyon Dezhnyov 80 years earlier.

Reader's Guide

Vitus Bering's significance lies in his leadership of the First Kamchatka Expedition and the Great Northern Expedition, which explored the northeastern coast of the Asian continent and from there the western coast of the North American continent. His voyages provided crucial cartographic data, demonstrating that Asia and North America are separated by sea. The Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, Bering Island, the Bering Glacier, and Vitus Lake were all named in his honor. His career reflects the ambitions of Peter the Great's Russia to expand its knowledge and reach, though Bering himself faced personal and professional challenges, including rank stagnation and family pressures. Bering's death on 19 December 1741 ended a life marked by both achievement and hardship, but his name remains attached to some of the world's most significant geographic features.

Did You Know?

• Vitus Bering was baptized in the Lutheran church in Horsens, Denmark, on 5 August 1681.
• He signed on as a ship's boy at age 15 and later completed naval officer training in Amsterdam.
• Bering married Anna Christina Pülse on 8 October 1713 in the Lutheran church at Vyborg; they had nine children, four of whom survived childhood.
• On 29 December 1724 [N.S. 9 January 1725], Peter I ordered Bering to captain the First Kamchatka Expedition to determine whether Asia and America shared a land border.
• The Bering Strait, Bering Sea, Bering Island, Bering Glacier, and Vitus Lake were all named in his honor.